Dadrien
by taking it easy
Summary: Oh, no. It just slipped out of his mouth, and he almost got detention. But, on the bright side, he also got that cute, shy baker girl to stop being so nervous around him. And as it turns out, she's - Oh. My. Goodness... She's-?


"Who can tell me what is wrong with this statement, grammatically? Mr. Agreste?"

Adrien Agreste, still exhausted from his nighttime excursions as the superhero Chat Noir, had not been paying the least bit of attention. Slightly panicking, Adrien said the first thing that came to mind –

"Eh, that's really _noun_ of my business, ma'am." He froze as soon as the words exited his mouth.

Beside him, Nino Lahiffe snickered as the professor shook her head, mumbling about the inattentiveness of teenagers. Behind them, Adrien barely heard Marinette mutter, "Of all the humor out there, he has to like dumb dad jokes."

Smirking, the blonde turned in his seat and looked at the girl, eliciting a quick 'eep' from her.

"Just call me _Dad_ rien."

Nino's snicker evolved into a low chuckle and even Alya began to giggle as Marinette laid her head in her palms.

Adrien was feeling encouraged that his friend, who was normally too nervous to behave normally in front of him, was reacting thusly. He made to continue when he was interrupted.

"Adrien Agreste, one more outburst and that'll be a detention!"

Suitably cowed, secret superhero stepped down.

Until lunchtime.

He grinned when Marinette pulled out her lunch – somewhat fresh pastries.

Leaning toward Nino, Adrien stage-whispered, "Marinette's got some pretty cute buns."

The baker's face flushed immediately out of embarrassment but soon cooled into a small scowl, "I _was_ going to share these with all of you, but I don't think Adrien needs any." Alya watched as any infatuation her friend had was pummeled by bad puns.

Of course, Adrien only grinned wider, adding, "Oh, why must you _bun_ ish me so harshly?" He was neatly socked in the head by Alya.

"What's with the bad jokes suddenly?"

Adrien pretended to be offended as he turned toward the reporter. Leaning in so he couldn't be overheard, he admitted, "Marinette's nice, but she's usually so nervous around me that I thought it'd be good to break the ice."

"Yeah," she whispered back, "But Marinette hates puns. I think you'll just get her to dislike you."

Louder, Adrien continued, "That's not very _ice_ of her. In fact, that's pretty _cold._ " He sneaked a glance at Marinette only to see her grumpily biting into a biscuit. Seeing her attempts at pouting while also enjoying her meal brought great amusement and he couldn't help but think that she was adorable.

Chemistry was next.

Adrien continued with his humor as he walked purposely into his desk. "Ow! That hurts like ten protons."

Everyone looked at him quizzically as his three friends braced themselves for what was coming.

"Because I hit my _neon_ the desk."

Marinette's face morphed into a new look of horror as even Mendeleev laughed at Adrien's joke. She groaned and mouthed to Alya, "He was perfect until _this._ ".

"Come on, Marinette," he grinned, "These jokes are comedy _gold_ , or maybe platinum, even. I can't just _barium_."

Adrien felt very accomplished when Mendeleev herself started cracking up, and it felt sweetest when the chemistry professor joined in on the fun.

Unfortunately, the end of the period seemed to come all too soon for Adrien.

"Well," he said, feigning glumness, "Don't' worry, Marinette." He patted her on the back, "Because all the good chemistry jokes _argon._ "

A thud resounded as the baker hit herself with her hardback book.

For the whole day, he kept coming up with the most elite jokes he was capable of –

"I can't just give it Agreste, you know."

"I'm not _that_ bad. I consider this _model_ behavior."

"Well, school's over. I guess for now, Adrien is Adri- _out._ "

Marinette was about ready to burst as she finally broke away from the group, only to remember that she had a patrol with Chat Noir tonight.

Hours later, she had cooled off slightly when the first thing that Chat Noir said that night flared her annoyance back up.

"Hello, My Lady. 'Tis a _mew_ tiful nig-"

"Stop. Chat Noir, I have suffered through dumb jokes just like that _all_ day, and I have a _big_ headache because of them. So just – nix the puns tonight, okay? Chat?" Ladybug looked at Chat, only to see him gaping with widened eyes at her. Softening her sharp glare, she amended, "It's nothing to do with _you,_ specifically, chaton. I just had a rough day, and I'm not in the mood."

"All day?"

"Well," she bit her lip, "Okay, not _all_ day, but during school there was this guy who is usually kind of quiet, and nice, and sweet, and really ha –" she shook the thought away, "Anyway, today, for some reason he telling all sorts of bad jokes – like in biology, he pointed at his upper arm and said, 'I sure am giving my _humorus_ a work out today' – and I just-"

Chat zoned out for a minute as he recognized one of _his_ witticisms from earlier. Ladybug was Marinette. Marinette was Ladybug. This was Marinette with him right _now! He had been with_ Ladybug _all day!_

"-since I liked him up until-"

Now _that_ was new.

"Wait, what?" Chat blinked. His glowing green eyes picked out every detail of his Lady's face, even in the dark.

She flushed and looked away slightly, "Ah, this guy. I kind of like him because he's really sweet and kind and thoughtful and—"

"Okay." Chat interrupted, close to blushing himself.

"Excuse me?"

"Okay. I'll stop the puns for tonight."

"Oh, thanks-"

"Yeah," he said, casually stopping her. "I needed Agreste anyway."


End file.
